Fredrik L wrote:Did not Volz use to be classified separately in ancient times? IIRC, it is a part of the Wiltinger Braunfels.

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

Fredrik, I'm having difficulty in holding back a rant. If it's part Wiltinger Braunfels, which I can locate, why the h*ll not mention it on the label? But maybe the back label makes all clear.....?

Tim,

This is actually a practice that harkens back to the 1971 wine law. Volz was its own site, and in '71 was combined with others to be the larger Braunfels. Producers are trying to recognize those old site names as they believe that the old sites have distinctive character. Selbach's Anrecht, Schmitt and Rotlay bottlings are the same sort of thing (though generally sweet not dry...there was a Schmitt trocken a couple of years ago, but not sure if that has been continued). As for the van Volxem, I "think" that theBraunfels must be mentioned on the back label, as that is the officially recognized site. Selbach mentions the various Zeltingen vineyards on their parcel bottlings, just as Vollenweider did on his Wolfer Goldgrube bottlings when he was doing the separate parcel named wines.

As David points out, a number of producers are using former site names that are no longer allowed as of the 1971 Wine Law. Peter Lauer and Loch/Weinhof Herrenberg often switch to a dialect spelling with endings such as "-bersch" rather than "-berg," or "Stier" for "Stirn."

At Van Volxem, Roman had to change the spelling from Vols to "Volz." It's an enclave in Braunfels. In fact, there's a very good Saar producer named after this pre-1971 site. It's called VOLS in Ayl. The owner is Helmut Plunien. By the way, I once worked a summer at Van Volxem in the vineyards. Vols is near Scharzhofberg. The soil at Vols is a primarily hard gray slate with iron oxide. Some mistakenly describe it and the soil of the Lower Mosel as graywacke.

Tim York wrote:Fredrik, I'm having difficulty in holding back a rant. If it's part Wiltinger Braunfels, which I can locate, why the h*ll not mention it on the label? But maybe the back label makes all clear.....?

Hi all, I've double-checked the back label. It only says that it's a traditionally made wine from steep slate slopes ..

Because of the spelling change, it is technically a fantasy name.

This really puts us into the silly season .

I sympathise with growers' wish to resurrect formerly famous plot names, the suppression of which was one of the bad features of the 1971 law. However being obliged to change the spelling and dispensing with Wiltinger Braunfels ....... (Daniel Vollenweider, if I remember correctly my bottles of 01 or 02, put "Portz" as a neck label but retained Wolfer Goldgruber on the main label.)

One has to be one of the chosen few in the know to be aware of the excellence and origin of Volz or Vols. Thanks to Rainer's excellent TN and the other contributors here, I am now one of those happy few .